Search

Well-designed leadership development is essential in school systems that desire high-quality teaching and learning for all students in all classrooms. Significant change throughout the system requires that leaders first change their own beliefs, understanding, and actions. "Real time" professional learning for leaders is very different from the "sit and get" sessions still commonly experienced by most school and district administrators. The author offers 13 beliefs about leadership and leadership development.

Individuals and organizations have an amazing capacity to maintain their current beliefs and practices in the face of massive, well-intentioned efforts to change them. There are two facts that cannot be ignored if teaching and learning are to be improved for the benefit of all students: First, the majority of teachers know more about effective teaching than they regularly practice. Second, exposure to research as provided in traditional inservice programs seldom results in significant and lasting improvements in practice. New habits of mind and practice require robust forms of professional learning. These two facts are at the heart of the knowing-doing gap. The author's suggestions for closing the knowing-doing gap are informed by two big ideas: (1) Methods commonly used in schools to spread and develop good practices are too weak to continuously improve teaching practice; and (2) Change is sufficiently demanding that people find it difficult to change even when their financial welfare or their lives depend on it. In this article, the author shares six concrete actions that leaders can take as they work in a collaborative effort to change schools. These actions are intended to close the gap between knowing what will work to improve schools and doing what will work. The author believes that in the face of the two big ideas mentioned above, these purposeful steps can move educators toward continuous learning and the transformation of long-standing cognitive frameworks.

Profound change in school begins with profound change in leaders that radiates to others and into the system. Profound change requires more than structural change--it requires changing the brains of teachers and administrators. Creating such change requires that leaders think, speak, and act differently on a daily basis, clarifying their ideas and values in important areas and communicating them clearly.

In an interview, business professor Jane Dutton talks about her book, "Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work" (Jossey-Bass, 2003). She organized her book around what she describes as a "deceptively simple" premise: "The energy and vitality of individuals and organizations alike depends on the quality of the connections among people in the organization, and between organizational members and people outside the firm with whom they do business." She stresses that leaders in their everyday behaviors can make an enormous difference in activating and renewing the energy that people bring to their work.

In this interview, Andy Hargreaves posits that teachers need a high level of creativity and flexibility to be effective in their work, and they must understand their larger social mission. Yet standardization is working against those very qualities. Real professional learning communities, more than just teams of teachers solving problems, can help teachers better educate all children.

When you examine your assumptions about teaching and learning, you may find the barriers to greater achievement aren't what you thought they were. You can learn to be a better leader and understand how one individual can make a difference if you choose to recognize that change begins with you.

The Positive Deviance Approach promoted by Jerry Sternin suggests that the answer to reform must come from within an organization or community. By identifying the few who have created success already, we can find the means to amplify that success and broaden it to the larger community. Sternin explains how this approach worked to alleviate hunger and how it can work at home in our schools.

This interview examines teacher craft knowledge and educational quality, noting that schools cannot improve themselves and suggesting that in order to be taken seriously, the teaching profession must take seriously its heroes and the important work teachers do. The paper discusses the role of school-based reformers and the need for professional collaboration and teacher participation in change. (SM)

An interview with authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey points the way to change by encouraging educators to challenge hidden assumptions and learn to recognize the immune system they develop that impedes their own progress. They suggest that leaders consider how organizational level barriers are effective expressions of commitment. An exercise to help educators identify their immune system is presented. (SM)

Interviews Dave Ellis, president of the Brande Foundation, who promotes life coaching to help leaders become more creative and effective by making them happier, more satisfied human beings. It provides an opportunity for people to look at all areas of their lives, determine what they want in these areas, and have the coach help them develop realistic action plans. (SM)

Staff development leading to significant improvement in student learning is results-driven, standards-based, job-embedded, and focused on teachers' content and instructional skills. The National Staff Development Council's recently adopted code of ethics aims to increase awareness of ethical issues and improve decision-making capabilities regarding them. (MLH)

Presents an interview with Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust, discussing: challenges to developing high quality staff development in schools serving low-income, minority students; teacher turnover; rural poverty; content-oriented staff development; learning from colleagues; making time for staff learning; willingness to change and re-examine preconceived ideas about education; leadership and standards; and the school's influence. (SM)

Initiating improved models of teacher practice requires a series of resolutions to guide staff-development efforts. The revamped scenario sets priorities among all the teacher's essential roles and responsibilities: learning, instructing, planning, writing, coaching, tutoring, and studying. Teacher competence and quality are also priorities. (MLH)

Presents an interview about learning communities with Ann Lieberman, known for her work in teacher leadership and development, educational change, collaborative research, and partnerships. The interview addresses characteristics of schools with professional learning communities; how such schools are created; necessary external supports; on-the-job learning; teacher leaders; supporting teacher leaders; setting an agenda for change; and urgency versus planning. (SM)

This interview discusses the school-improvement process, describing difficulties with setting schoolwide goals, what should happen once the goal is selected, what prevents schools from emphasizing a single goal and working to achieve it, the need to develop high academic expectations for all students, how to use research, ways to go beyond test scores, and the role of school leaders. (SM)

This interview with Phillip Schlechty, a leader in school reform, discusses assumptions about teachers' roles, suggesting teachers be viewed as inventors and leaders of knowledge workers. The interview addresses teachers as inventors; developing school leaders; assumptions about behavior; structural changes in education; building capacity for reform; central office role; and preparing to lead. Ten critical qualities of student work are presented. (SM)

In this interview, Professional Development Director Susan Loucks-Horsley explains that science teachers must experience science in new ways themselves. Topics covered include her involvement in educational improvement; pedagogical content knowledge and teaching skills; teaching teachers; successful professional development; new standards and assessment; diverse learners; professional development for thematic or interdisciplinary teaching; and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. (SM)

Questions and answers about staff development examine: what it is; why it is important; what teachers did not learn in college; collaboration; funding; connections between staff development and student learning; indicators of effective staff development; and improving staff development quality. Data come from six key national reports on professional development and from five resolutions by the National Staff Development Council. (SM)